Miraculous intervention saved teen son from tractor rollover

By Ronald D. Mallett —

When my family and I moved to New York City from Tucson, Arizona,  for an amazing executive job opportunity at the corporate level, it didn’t take long to realize city life wasn’t for us. So, instead of settling in the concrete jungle, we bought a 40-acre farm in Bethlehem, Connecticut.  The commute was severe, but the company eventually moved my office to a Connecticut laboratory…  a major blessing.

We  subsequently named our farm Shayke Hill, after our children, Shaylea and Kevin, and quickly fell in love with the rolling hills and hardwood forests. But nothing could have prepared us for the miracle that occurred one summer afternoon. It was a day that changed not just our lives, but the very way we understand God’s presence and the reality of angels.

Kevin, who was only 14 years old at the time, and small for his age, had become adept at driving a heavy old tractor with mechanical brakes… a responsibility he’d taken on with surprising ease. On this particular day, however, he took it upon himself to drive the monstrous relic up the steepest slopes of Shayke Hill, deftly maneuvering the large machine as he had done many times before on the lower hay fields.

Pat, my wife, and I heard the racket and rushed outside to see what he was up to now. We trusted his ability, but that hill was steep—dangerously so. He was coming down far too fast on a rocky and rut-filled hillside alongside a heavy stone fence. He kept his hand on the wheel, but his body was being thrown left and right, cutting off all possibility of  braking the iron behemoth.

Suddenly, Kevin turned the tractor away from the stone fence, tipping the tractor at a sharp right angle… to a point of no return. In the next moment gravity took over. My heart stopped. There’s a moment when you know all hope has left… that disaster is inevitable. In slow motion—the massive machine began its deadly roll. Physics and the steep hill demanded it.

Terror gripped me like never before.

“My son! My son!” I screamed, my voice cracking with outrageous fear and helplessness.

Pat cried out beside me, “Lord, save him!” Her voice was shaking in hopeless terror. The tractor tilted more, and for a split second we were sure he would die.

But then, something happened that defies explanation.

Just as the tractor reached the point of no return, it stopped… hanging in mid-air, suspended by invisible hands. The massive machine should have rolled, but it remained upright—held steady by an invisible force we knew was there but couldn’t see. Kevin scrambled safely from the tractor’s uphill side and at the same moment all four wheels were gently settled back onto the ground, gently placed there by something stronger than gravity.

Pat and I stood in stunned silence. We couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. We had both seen it. There was no natural explanation for what had just happened. The tractor’s movements defied the laws of physics, tipping past its center of gravity, only to be lifted and set down casually, as if carried by unseen hands.

We ran to Kevin, who was unharmed—shaken, but without a single scratch. As we embraced him, the weight of what had just happened began to sink in. We had witnessed a miracle. There was no other way to describe it.

In that moment, any doubts we may have ever had about the reality of angels evaporated. The Bible tells us that angels are “ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14), and on that hill, in that desperate moment, we saw them at work.

I know this may sound hard to believe. Even as Christians, many of us struggle with the biblical truth that angels are actively involved in our lives. It’s easy to accept them as part of biblical history, but harder to imagine as still present, still working, still saving.

But after what Pat and I witnessed… more than once… we know without hesitation: angels are real. And they are still here, still acting on our behalf, sent by a loving God who hears our cries for help.

I understand that many people, even Christians, might be skeptical of stories like this. I’ve had my own moments of doubt. I used to think that maybe miracles were just coincidences, things we explained away because we couldn’t understand them.

But we hope this story gives you pause the next time you find yourself doubting whether God is still at work in our world today. Sometimes, His hand is subtle—quietly moving in the background, in ways we might never notice. But other times, as on that hill, it is unmistakable. Some might say it was luck. But we know it was a miracle, and we know exactly whom to thank.